# What is Alina Habba's deep game? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [January 9, 2024, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829 "2024-01-09T13:50:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/21 "2024-01-10T20:38:47Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > In terms of ability I think that she is probably a middle of the road lawyer who would be perfectly fine drafting wills, evicting tenets and suing for back child support, but who is in way over her head when it comes to the complexity of Trumps current legal issues. The one thing that gets her into serious trouble is also the one thing that has catapulted to the top of Trump’s Lawyer scrum, is that she does what Trump tells her. So if Trump come up with a hairbrained legal strategy, rather than doing her job as legal advisor and telling him “No, that is a terrible idea, and probably illegal. It will never fly, and will get us in big trouble.” She just says “Sure I’ll get right on it!” and writes it up. I don’t know anything about Ms. Habba in particular, but this tracks with the opinion of a lawyer friend of mine who has been practicing in NY for many years. Over lunch, he told me Trump’s reputation within the legal community in NY has been terrible since the 80s. Hence, he thinks Trump hasn’t been able to get really _good_ attorneys to work for him in decades. It’s possible we are seeing the consequences of that now. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/22 "2024-01-11T05:08:29Z")
I assume she’s gunning for Wife #4. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/23 "2024-01-11T08:19:10Z")
I’m really tempted to make a nickname for her à la Trump. Mostly because there’s gotta be a _Jabba the Hut_ reference there somewhere. _Habba the Jut_ comes to mind first because of the nifty symmetry switcheroo but it doesn’t make sense. Maybe if she were Danish? (do they call those from Jutland _Juts_?) _Habba the Slut_ rolls of the tongue neatly but it only ends up being a lame, knee-jerk offering unless she truly is a slut but even then, it’s even slimier than a Trump nickname. _Habba the Mutt_? Problem with this one is that she’s nominally attractive. Hmmm… what to do, what to do, what to do? ---
**Author:** ![Mikkel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikkel/32/13151_2.png) [@Mikkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikkel)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/24 "2024-01-11T08:39:11Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > do they call those from Jutland _Juts_?) Jutes, I’m afraid. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/25 "2024-01-11T16:14:34Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I’m really tempted to make a nickname for her à la Trump. Mostly because there’s gotta be a _Jabba the Hut_ reference there somewhere. Before she was Trump’s lawyer she was general counsel for her second husband’s parking garage company. So I sometimes call her Garage Barbie. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/26 "2024-01-11T16:54:03Z")
Moderating: > [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > Hmmm… what to do, what to do, what to do? Take the fun game to a Pit thread. It’s not appropriate for this one. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/27 "2024-01-11T17:06:09Z")
I created a PIt thread if people want to continue the discussion about nicknames or otherwise comment without having to keep it P&E appropriate: > [@The Alina Habba Pit thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-alina-habba-pit-thread/995965): > > Continuing the discussion from [What is Alina Habba's deep game?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/23): I think that Trump’s lawyer deserves her own thread. A mod note in the P&E thread dedicated to her suggested taking some of the discussion to the Pit, following a comment from @I_Love_Me_Vol.I about coming up with a mocking nickname for her. I’ll also repeat what I had said over in the P&E thread about how she got to be Trump’s lawyer. She targeted a Trump employee who had been a victim of sexual assault by her manager (not Tr… ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/28 "2024-01-11T17:08:02Z")
Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/29 "2024-01-11T21:24:51Z")
That’s true. I apologize… I wasn’t thinking about what forum I was in. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/30 "2024-01-12T05:40:39Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > She targeted a Trump employee who had been a victim of sexual assault by her manager (not Trump himself) and pretended to be the employee’s friend, offering to take care of her. Then she got that person to sign away her ability to go after her attacker or Trump’s business. I think I just figured it out. She’s going to do the same thing to Melania and then to Trump. Melania apparently re-negotiated her pre-nup after finding out about Stormy, which is why Trump hasn’t dumped her yet. Habba is going to use this same trick on her to get her to sign all of her rights away. The kids probably aren’t in Trump’s will and Trump could be a single heartbeat away from being an estate. So what happens to all of Trump’s assets once he is gone? Well, that’s going to be up to his lawyer, isn’t it? And would you look at that? He signed this here document without reading it (because he can’t read and she is well aware of this)! She is going to rob him blind and he’s paying her to do it! Worst lawyer ever? If she breaks Trump the way I think she’d like to, she’s the best lawyer ever. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/31 "2024-01-12T05:58:28Z")
_The Hand That Shakes The Ketchup_ ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/32 "2024-01-12T14:21:22Z")
Interesting theory. Mrs. Cardigan posed this very possibility last night when I asked her what she thought Habba’s game was. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/33 "2024-01-12T17:39:36Z")
As a general rule, there aren’t a ton of dummies in most law schools. First off, these folk all graduated from college, and most of them had to do reasonably well on the LSAT. So that puts them ahead of many folk in terms of book-larnin and test-taking. in a DECENT law school, one of the first things you notice are that EVERYONE in all of your classes was near the top of their clolleg classes. Which can be a bit of a new experience. A couple of provisos: the further down you go in law school rankings, the less selective you can expect the schools to be. So you could get into a bottom-tier law school with relatively poor grades from a mediocre college and low LSAT tests. As I understand it, some private law schools will accept pretty much anyone with a pulse and cash. Some non-selective law schools flunk out nonperformers, but others will happily pass students along so long as the tuition checks keep clearing. Ms Habba attended [LeHigh-Widener](https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/widener-university-delaware-03210?test_src=gpn-control). I find school ratings somewhat dubious and had never heard of this school, but rated at 175, I think it safe to say it is not terribly exclusive and does not attract the best students/professors. But she got into law school and graduated, which shows she has more book larnin than at least most high school grads and some college grads. Then she passed the bar. Not everyone passes - but there are bar review courses which would allow any reasonably intelligent person who is decent at taking tests to pass. I used such a course to prepare for bar sections in which I had never taken a class. So again, at the very least, she is a good enough test taker - which IMO really says little about meaningful intelligence. I suspect all of us have encountered folk with multiple advanced degrees who are lacking in common sense, or whose questionable choices seem to reflect a lack of common sense or dubious morals. This is where I think Ms. Habba may fall short. I think she is likely a very average attorney, who would be perfectly capable of handling any number of routine legal matters. But I think the key factor is that she has a great desire for self promotion and wealth, that outweighs her innate legal abilities or moral compass. I also consider her history “in the fashion industry” before law school, as well as the manner in which she presents herself. She is getting a bunch of cash - more than she would from doing real estate closings or drafting wills, as well as a TON of publicity. I’d suspect she would be thrilled to follow up her representation of Trump with any number of roles as a commentator or TV personality. No one expects her to win, but many true believers will reward her for putting up what they consider to be a good fight. And there seem to be many opportunities for reasonably attractive talking heads. In the CRAZY outside chance Trump gets elected - who knows? She might be rewarded with a lifetime position well above her ability from which she could be another loose Cannon! ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/34 "2024-01-12T17:52:51Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > As a general rule, there aren’t a ton of dummies in most law schools. First off, these folk all graduated from college, and most of them had to do reasonably well on the LSAT. So that puts them ahead of many folk in terms of book-larnin and test-taking. in a DECENT law school, one of the first things you notice are that EVERYONE in all of your classes I don’t think she’s actually stupid, she just isn’t as smart as she pretends to be. I’m sure she knows the law better than I, but even I, a lay person, can look at her arguments and see right through them. I wish I could use that as evidence that I’m a smart person, but her arguments are so stupid that I can’t even look good in my own mind when I see through them. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/35 "2024-01-12T18:30:44Z")
Don’t get too impressed with yourself! 😉 It is not at all uncommon for lawyers to make absolutely stupid arguments - or not even make coherent arguments. Some number of lawyers will do just about whatever a client wishes - so long as the efforts will not get the lawyer sanctioned, and the client pays a fee. IMO, there are lawyers who are essentially play-acting - putting on a show for their client’s benefit. I am not allowed to hold lawyers in contempt in the proceedings I conduct. But I imagine that even in venues where judges CAN make such holdings, I suspect most are reticent to do so because it only causes them additional work. As a general matter, I’ve greatly reduced the number of questions I ask counsel - at least the many whom I know are unlikely to respond intelligently and meaningful. I’d rather not get an answer to a necessary question than to hear some infuriatingly stupid answer. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/36 "2024-01-12T19:09:14Z")
AIUI, she’s already a couple of million up, probably from some PAC, so she’s not super worried about destroying her non-existent reputation. A couple mil to file frivolous stalling maneuvers and make duck face at the defense table. Oh, and accompany him at social events. She must have that menthol crap from Silence of the Lambs up her nose. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2024, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/37 "2024-01-12T23:54:13Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > She’s going to do the same thing to Melania and then to Trump. Melania apparently re-negotiated her pre-nup after finding out about Stormy, which is why Trump hasn’t dumped her yet. Habba is going to use this same trick on her to get her to sign all of her rights away. Naw, Melania isn’t stupid enough to fall for that, and she’d have her own lawyer, probably the same one that negotiated her revised pre-nup, go over anything Habba tried to slip past her. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/38 "2024-01-13T17:36:04Z")
Hey, maybe Habba is being paid by Melania to keep ol’ Stinky away from her? Maybe hoping Habba will do something which would precipitate divorce proceedings. I don’t know what that could be. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/39 "2024-01-13T17:48:40Z")
When it comes to Trump, the simplest thing would be to just record him talking. If he’s talking to Habba as an object of his lust, it will take him about half a sentence to give a divorce lawyer everything they would need and the trouble at that point would be getting him to shut up. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829/40 "2024-01-13T17:49:34Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > So what happens to all of Trump’s assets once he is gone? Well, that’s going to be up to his lawyer, isn’t it? And would you look at that? He signed this here document without reading it (because he can’t read and she is well aware of this)! She is going to rob him blind and he’s paying her to do it! Worst lawyer ever? If she breaks Trump the way I think she’d like to, she’s the best lawyer ever. This would get her disbarred (yes, I know, I know : why would she care?). I’m not entirely sure if it’s a crime. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-alina-habbas-deep-game/995829.md?page=3)